Sultanate of Rum

The Sultanate of Rum, also called the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum, was a Sunni Muslim state with a Turco-Persian culture. It was established by the Seljuk Turks after they entered Anatolia following the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, taking over Byzantine lands and peoples. The term "Rum" was a name for the medieval Roman Empire and its people, a usage that continues in modern Turkish. This name came from Aramaic and Parthian words for ancient Rome, which had been adopted from the Greek "Romaioi." The Seljuk Turks used it to refer to Anatolia. The sultanate marks the start of Turkish history in the region.

The state broke away from the Seljuk Empire in 1077 under Suleiman ibn Qutalmish. Its first capital was Nicaea, later moved to Iconium (Konya). It peaked in power during the late 12th and early 13th centuries, capturing key Byzantine ports on the Mediterranean and Black Sea coasts. To the east, it reached Lake Van. A system of caravanserai developed trade from Iran and Central Asia through Anatolia, with especially strong ties to the Genoese. This wealth allowed the sultanate to absorb other Turkish states that had formed after the Byzantine conquest, such as the Danishmendids, House of Mengüjek, Saltukids, and Artuqids.

The Seljuk sultans faced the brunt of the Crusades and eventually fell to the Mongol invasion at the Battle of Köse Dağ in 1243. For the rest of the 13th century, they were vassals of the Ilkhanate. Their power crumbled in the latter half of the century. The last Seljuk vassal sultan under the Ilkhanate, Mesud II, was killed in 1308. The state’s dissolution left many small Anatolian beyliks, including the Ottoman dynasty, which later reunited Anatolia and formed the Ottoman Empire.

**History**

**Establishment** From the 1030s, Turkish groups seeking pastureland had crossed Byzantine borders into Anatolia. After Manzikert in the 1070s, Seljuk commander Suleiman ibn Qutulmish—a distant cousin of Alp Arslan and a former contender for the Seljuk throne—rose to power in western Anatolia. Between 1075 and 1081, he took control of Nicaea and briefly Nicomedia. About two years later, he founded a sultanate that was nominally a Byzantine vassal but grew independent after six to ten years. The Seljuk ruler Malikshah recognized it as a vassal in 1084, yet in 1085, Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos tasked Suleiman with recapturing Antioch, and Suleiman traveled there via a secret route, likely guided by the Byzantines. Suleiman failed to take Aleppo in 1086 and died at the Battle of Ain Salm, either in combat or by suicide. His son Kilij Arslan I was imprisoned, and his general Abu'l-Qasim took power in Nicaea. After Malik Shah’s death in 1092, Kilij Arslan was freed and established himself in his father’s lands between 1092 and 1094, possibly with approval from Malik Shah’s son Berkyaruq.

**Crusades** Kilij Arslan defeated the People’s Crusade in 1096 but was beaten by the First Crusade’s princely soldiers and pushed into south-central Anatolia, making Konya his capital. He overcame three Crusade contingents in the Crusade of 1101. In 1107, he moved east and captured Mosul, but died that year fighting Malik Shah’s son, Mehmed Tapar. He was the first Muslim commander against the crusades. Meanwhile, another Rum Seljuk, Malik Shah (not the Seljuk sultan), took Konya. In 1116, Kilij Arslan’s son Mesud I captured the city with Danishmend help. By Mesud’s death in 1156, the sultanate controlled nearly all of central Anatolia.

The Second Crusade, called by Pope Eugene III, was the first led by European kings—Louis VII of France and Conrad III of Germany—with other nobles. Their armies marched separately across Europe. After entering Anatolia from Byzantine territory, both were defeated by the Seljuks. The main Western source, Odo of Deuil, and Syriac sources claimed Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos secretly hindered the crusaders, ordering Turks to attack them. This sabotage story was likely fabricated by Odo, who saw the empire as an obstacle, and Manuel had no political motive. Louis and Conrad and their remnants reached Jerusalem and joined a failed attack on Damascus in 1148. The crusade in the east ended as a Muslim victory.

Mesud’s son, Kilij Arslan II, was the first Seljuk ruler known to use the title of sultan. He captured remaining territories around Sivas and Malatya from the last Danishmends. At the Battle of Myriokephalon in 1176, he defeated a Byzantine army under Manuel I. Despite a temporary occupation of Konya in 1190 by Holy Roman Empire forces during the Third Crusade, the sultanate quickly recovered. In Kilij Arslan II’s final years, a civil war broke out, with Kaykhusraw I fighting to retain control and losing to his brother Suleiman II in 1196. After Kilij Arslan II’s death, the sultanate was divided among his sons. Elbistan went to Tughril ibn Kılıç Arslan II, and when Erzurum was taken from the Sa...